Maja Herman Sekulić


Maja Herman Sekulić is a former Yugoslav and Serbian poet, novelist, essayist and translator.

Biography

Maja Herman Sekulić was born in Belgrade, Serbia, Yugoslavia, where she received her M.A. in World Literature from the University of Belgrade in 1977, and her PhD in Comparative Literature from Princeton, New Jersey, in 1986.
She spent 1990–91 in Germany, and 1992–7 in the Far East. Nowadays, she shares her time between New York City and Belgrade. She is a member of the Serbian Literary Association, Serbian Literary Society, Serbian and the American P.E.N. Center, Academy of American Poets and the International Federation of Journalists.
She taught at Princeton University, and Rutgers University, and was guest-lecturer at Harvard, Columbia, Iowa, and other universities. Besides academic work, she has also edited the journal Night in New York from 1989 to 1990, and is a regular contributor to Recours au Poème, Belgrade dailies Politika and Blic, "Cultural Journal" on Serbian TV and other media and literary journals. In 2017, she signed the Declaration on the Common Language of the Croats, Serbs, Bosniaks and Montenegrins.

Poetry collections

She started publishing poetry since 1981, first in Knjizevne novine, literary magazine, then in other distinguished publications. Kamerografija, 1990. Kartografija, 1992. Iz muzeja lutanja, 1997. Iz puste zemlje Paideia, 1998. It came out as a bilingual English & Serbian edition, as a tribute to and parody of T.S.Eliot and as a lament over the Balkan destiny, with cover and illustrations by Mirko Ilic.
  • Her e-book of selected and new poems selected by the French poet Matthieu Baumier De La Terre de Désolation, French translation by Elizabeth Brunazzi, July 2015.
  • Lady of Vincha, poem, izdavač Pešić i sinovi, 2017 COBISS.SR-ID 237510668
Her poems were published in English in such prominent American periodicals as The Paris Review and Confrontation; were included in anthologies in English such North Dakota Quarterly, "Out of Yugoslavia" anthology,1993; The Paris Review, New York, 1992 translated by Mark Strand, American Poet Laureate; The Printed Matter, Tokyo, 1992; in German, anthology Das Buch der Rånder Lyrik, Wieser Verlag,1995; bilingual selections in French and English at Recours au Poeme, Paris, 2012 and 2013 and in a book 2015.

Novels

Kralj svile, 2000, 2001. Slike kojih nema,, 2009. U potrazi za Lolitom, 2011., English translation in preparation for publication Ma Belle, prva americka dama Srbije, 2015, Sluzbeni glasnik, Beograd

Essays

Skice za portrete A collection of essays and conversations with colleagues and friends, American and international authors ranging from Joseph Brodsky to Bret Easton Ellis. Knjizevnost prestupa First published in English as a series of essays in James Joyce Quarterly and European Studies Journal, then as doctoral dissertation Prozor u žadu, Prosveta 1994. A book of travel essays about travels through Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Burma.
It was published in English under pen name Maya Herman, The Jade Window ; Publisher Code: B0003/1998-2,000 The jade window: images from Southeast AsiaDigitalna galaksija, 2011. a book of micro essays about the transition of our world from print to digital media.
  • "Who was Nikola Tesla? The Genius who gave us Light" Zavod za udzbenike 2015, Belgrade,.

Other publications

Besides the books for adults, Maja Herman Sekulić published a book for children Slon Lala Tulipan, ili kako je otkriven porcelan with illustrations by Dobrosav Bob Zivkovic, and for English and German publications of Elephant Lala the Tulipe, or how porcelain was invented with illustrations by Sibille Schwarz; she also published a poem for children in English Lazar, the Lizard in a Blizzard.
She wrote an introduction for a book of photography by the Italian photographer Marco Glaviano. She was a contributor to another book of photography Skin by distinguished French photographer Laurent Elie Badessi. She closely collaborated with Italian theatre director Paolo Magelli on a dramaturgy of the longest running production in Belgrade Drama Theater of Harold and Maude, and did a Serbian adaptation of the life of the British author, Dame Rebecca West, which is awaiting its Serbian theatre production.